Triple meter in film scores

[Holko 9,525]

I'll try to organise this a bit but it's kind of random rambling

 

Lately for some reason this just came into my head. I don't think it's wrong to say that 4 is the standard meter of western music, has been for quite some time. To deviate from it, a conscious decision has to be made - so why is it made, when is is usually used?. To me it usually suggests circularity or momentum, like a flywheel, but the most obvious association is with the waltz, a floaty, elegant, high-class dance with circular motion around multiple axes.

 

The first category that comes from the floaty elegance is flight, something still dreamy and unachievable to us if we think of birds or spaceships instead of mechanical industrial airplanes which really haven't been special for a while. Examples are Hedwig's Theme, Fawkes the Phoenix, Vermithrax's (rejected) flying motif (interesting because it emphasises the beauty of the villain) which is a reworking of North's rejected 2001 docking scene (which was replaced by Strauss' Blue Danube), STTMP's Enterprise material (no doubt inspired by the 2001 Strauss usage), Romantic Flight, Flying with Mother and Furies in Love for the "romantic" flying scenes from the HTTYDs, and Flying with Chewie.

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The second category is an evolution of this that disassociates from flight specifically, and is more about general somewhat childish, maybe playful fairytale beauty. Examples I gathered here are Kiki's Delivery Service (okay, still flight but I hope you get what I mean), the hero's theme from Legend (an unusual choice), Two Socks' theme from Dances with Wolves, the Enola/Dry Land theme from Waterworld, Hide and Seek, the Blue Fairy theme and The Reunion from AI (the former interrupted by less obviously structured tempo bits for David's mechanical nature and Monica's uncomfortableness with it), the Falcon reveal from Solo, Call of the Wild's main theme, Nori Brandyfoot's theme, and I'd also include Return of the King's opening here, it just has this quality for me.

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Another offshoot from the waltz/flying association could be usages in higher intensity action pieces, for the chase going well or things going right. Examples here are the Fellowship theme's appearances in Balin's Tomb (bonus clever points for the way it's embedded between two bits of the orcs' jagged rhythm, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2 suddenly switching to the well-ordered 1-2-3, 1-2-3, then back again) and The Three Hunters, much of Curse of the Black Pearl for Jack's brilliant on-the-fly plans where everything falls into place, and Corellia Chase.

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So far these have been positive, but there's also subversive ways to use it, or intentionally still using the circularity and momentum but without the beauty and elegance, sort of just as "things are proceeding towards the goal", be that neutral or negative. Here I'm thinking of the Corleone Waltz (initially used for the way Vito's respected, elegant and well-oiled machine runs, then for Michael building his own machine from the ground up), The Fury's main theme for the way the supernatural powers grow and are used for worse and worse goals, Images' main theme for the main character's downward spiral and slipping grip on reality, half the STTMP score but let's say the cues where the Enterprise is venturing into the cloud towards V'Ger to find out anything they can about it, Monsignor's theme for the main character's morals becoming more and more compromised, Presumed Innocent for the web of intrigues and crimes slowly being uncovered but still going on without resolution or an end in sight

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And then there's the final "perversion" of the waltz, the dark action cue where things are going wrong fast. There's the lumbering music for the blimp in Black Sunday (which somewhat like the Balin's Tomb example, clears up/fully realises the mostly jagged rhythms of the terrorist motif), North by Northwest with its madcap chases, the original version of Out the Door from Alien, To Scarborough from Dracula, the Chamber of Secrets theme, and the most tense/hopeless part of STAR WARS in Battle of Yavin, when Luke begins its trench run and Vader picks off Wedge and Biggs.

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I'd also add hungarian director Zoltán Fábri, multiple of whose films feature a handcrank or automated music machine playing a waltz as a symbol for the Hand of Fate pushing everything along whether we like it or not.

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So... uhh, did I have any point? Not really. Can you help me with finding one?

[Faleel 5,346]

I think you missed one: Love/Romantic themes.

 

 

[Mr. Who 919]

Much of the action/battle music in gladiator is 3/4 if I remember correctly.

[Ludwig 1,120]

Great topic, @Holko. For the flying association, I would add the E.T. flying theme. I'd agree that there's something buoyant about waltz-tempo triple times, and the examples you mention are excellent ones. And you might be onto something with the fairy-tale beauty idea as well. That could explain the triple time of The BFG's main theme, for example. For me, one of the most challenging things with these kinds of discoveries is understanding how strong the association is, meaning how widespread and frequent the connection is. What you provide here is a massive step towards that, so kudos!

 

When I was working on my course on rhythm and meter last year, I came across a whole bunch of passages in triple time / compound time (basically faster 3's) in Williams that had narrative associations and that were pretty frequent. One that he returns to often is the use of 3's in a slow compound time for sorrow. Examples include the main themes for Angela's Ashes, The Book Thief, Presumed Innocent (also includes mystery as an association), as well as Petticoat Lane, Across the Stars, Jedi Steps, and the new Obi-Wan theme. There were other associations, but that was the one that seemed to have the most examples I came across (aside from the action music association you mention, of course!).

[Holko 9,525]

4 hours ago, A Farewell to Kings said:

Love/Romantic themes.

Hmm, off the top of my head I can only think of Ilia.

 

38 minutes ago, Ludwig said:

For the flying association, I would add the E.T. flying theme.

Help me jog my memory please, which renditions of it are triple? I'm cycling (heh) through them in my head and it's only the Friendship theme which fits, Flying seems like a 4 to me. The Call could be triple too, actually, never thought about this stuff before.

[Faleel 5,346]

Are scherzo for today, and Scherzo for XWings 3 or 4?

[Ludwig 1,120]

31 minutes ago, Holko said:

Help me jog my memory please, which renditions of it are triple? I'm cycling (heh) through them in my head and it's only the Friendship theme which fits, Flying seems like a 4 to me. The Call could be triple too, actually, never thought about this stuff before.

 

The theme is in a slow 3 (counting the first 3 melody notes as the main beats), so it's really any rendition that's in that meter. It can have a slightly different feel at that tempo, but I would say the feeling of 3's is still prominent. Take the ones at the end of The Magic of Halloween:

 

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Or the one at the end of The Rescue and Bike Chase:

 

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[Docteur Qui 1,544]

37 minutes ago, Ludwig said:

 

The theme is in a slow 3 (counting the first 3 melody notes as the main beats), so it's really any rendition that's in that meter. It can have a slightly different feel at that tempo, but I would say the feeling of 3's is still prominent. Take the ones at the end of The Magic of Halloween:

 

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Or the one at the end of The Rescue and Bike Chase:

 

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Dear lord I've been listening to this theme for nearly three decades and I only just realised that it's in 3. It is a slow 3 as you point out - the score dictates a 3/2 time signature in both of those cues - and as such isn't a waltz, which is why I suppose it's doesn't feel like it's in 3 like many of the other examples. Funnily enough Buckbeak's Flight has the exact same time signature, and is obviously very much of a piece with the E.T. flying theme, but I always knew that one was in 3 (or at least 6, which is how I count it).

[Holko 9,525]

7 hours ago, Ludwig said:

 

The theme is in a slow 3 (counting the first 3 melody notes as the main beats), so it's really any rendition that's in that meter. It can have a slightly different feel at that tempo, but I would say the feeling of 3's is still prominent. Take the ones at the end of The Magic of Halloween:

 

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Or the one at the end of The Rescue and Bike Chase:

 

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Aah, that slow. Something that threw me off is the quick pulsing instrument with 4 pulses per first 2 notes, which would make it a very fast 4/6.